Even modern science accepts that behind
the structure we know as the material world is a web of energy, and
the interactions between different types of energy create the
semblance of solidity we call matter.

Thought, then, as a form of energy, has
the same power.

This is why in so many traditions there
are admonitions about controlling the thought process, while
thinking and doing are still different things, thinking does have
its effects.

Clairvoyants of many persuasions have seen and documented the shapes
and forms produced by various types of thought; witness the work of
Charles Leadbeater. While many of these forms are fleeting,
when empowered by the emotions and by memory they become more than
just thoughts, they become thought forms.

These thoughtforms exist beyond simply
when they are thought - they take on an independent existence within
the mind of the thinker. They then influence memory and condition
our perceptions of everyday life.

We may want to see these thoughtforms as
only existing within the psyche of the neurotic or unstable, and yet
all of us have our lives conditioned by the thoughtforms we
have created in the past.

For most people they never see the
present unfiltered, all experience is sieved through thoughtforms
created from childhood, and even beyond through past lives.

"Meme: (pron. 'meem') A contagious
idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind.
Memes function the same way genes and viruses do, propagating
through communication networks and face-to-face contact between
people."

David S. Bennahum

Thoughts however go much further.

As documented in much modern research on
Memes, thoughtforms can become like viruses of the mind. They can
spread throughout groups, families, nations and indeed the world and
are passed through the deeper levels of the unconscious we all
experience.

Rumors, tales and urban myths are all
memes or thoughtforms. While they may be primarily passed by the
printed word, internet, media, etc., there is a time when they reach
a certain "saturation point" and then become part of the collective
unconscious.

This is exceptionally dangerous as
negative and violent forms can control groups and crowds creating
mob violence and aggression. These group-minds are really
thoughtforms out of control, and are known in the Gnostic Tradition
as
Archons.

There are multitudes of Archons dwelling
both within our minds and within the collective unconscious.

Not only can Archons exist in the unconscious collective mind, they
can create a breach into the astral worlds through which fallen
spiritual entities can then move into the earthly spheres and
control the thoughtforms created.

The Archons are the products of mankind
enlivened by fallen spirits and fed by our own emotions. They can
control and influence individuals, collectives, even nations and
governments.

In Gnostic literature these Archons can
so increase in power that they become Dominions, forces which
control whole groups of people; even races and countries. People
of many religions think that they
are worshipping the I-AM; however they are actually feeding a false
god, an Archon they have created from their own ignorance.

This happens all too often and is why
the esoteric tradition is imperative.

Without the guidance of esotericism, many will be caught within the
web of exoteric (outer) religion. Fundamentalism, cults, literalism,
extremism are all products of incorrect readings of the spiritual
tradition.

When these groups develop, their
thoughtforms take on a life of their own and, not being connected to
the "real" energies of the Great Chain of Being, they soon sour and
become a nexus for the manifestation of fallen entities from the
astral worlds.

These fallen spirits work out of step
with the universe and invigorate these forms so that they become
independent, discrete fields of energy within
the astral world (Archons). They
grow from Archons to Dominions and rule from their
astral kingdoms. Their poor and unfortunate worshippers think they
are following the "true god" but are actually feeding monsters
created from mans suffering and ignorance.

Many of these forms feed on suffering,
while others feed on pleasure, and they amplify the emotions of
their members to gain more and more sustenance.

In some sense they are truly "spiritual
vampires", and without esotericism, all religions and traditions
succumb.

"(They took…) The name of those that
are good and gave it to those that are not good, so that through
the names they might deceive him (mankind) and bind those to
those that are not good."

The imagery of Archons is very strong in
Gnostic literature, and because it has become mixed with tales of
cosmological dualism, many have come to believe that the Archons are
the result of a cosmic error or fall.

The reality is that there was no cosmic
error, just a misinterpretation caused by ignorance.

Yet at the same time this ignorance has
created a doorway through which fallen forms can enter and it is
these Archons, or whatever we call them, which keep us from
appreciating our own misperceptions. Indeed, it is through our own
permission that they enter the earth sphere.

This is the idea which gave birth to the
"fall of man" tradition.

Since man in his ignorance created
fallen thought forms and allowed fallen entities to enter into the
earth stream, then ultimately man is responsible for the present
condition of his planet, his culture and his soul.

The issue of Archons is complex for there is an interaction between
our own thoughtforms and real fallen astral entities.

The thoughtforms allow these entities to
interface with our own unconscious. They can change form according
to the language of the culture through which they communicate and,
being a mixture of our own thoughtforms and "fallen" spirits, can
mimic our own hidden desires and needs.

While in Medieval periods we may have
had demons, incubus and succubus, in the
present we have aliens,
UFO abductions and medical
experiments by creatures we cannot see. In the modern mode, these
Archons are sometimes called "ultraterrestrials".

However we must realize that these forms
are spiritual in origin.

Although there are many other
races within our universe, it does
seem that a percentage of UFO sightings and experiences reflect our
own fears, terrors, needs and desires and hence have an Archontic
origin.

"The world is the work of lowly
powers which, though they may mediately be descended from Him,
do not know the true God and obstruct the knowledge of Him in
the cosmos over which they rule.

The genesis of these lower powers,
the Archons, and in general that of all the Orders of being
outside God, including the world itself, is the main theme of
Gnostic speculation… The universe, the domain of the Archons, is
like a vast prison whose innermost dungeon is the earth, the
scene of man's life.

Around and above it the cosmic
spheres are arranged like concentric enclosing shells. Most
frequently there are seven spheres of the planets surrounded by
the eighth and of the fixed stars…

The religious significance of this cosmic architecture lies in
the idea that everything which intervenes between here and the
beyond serves to separate from God, not merely by spatial
distance but by active demonic force. Thus the vastness and
multiplicity of the cosmic system express the degree to which
man is removed from God…

The Archons collectively rule over the world and each
individually in his sphere is a warder of the cosmic prison.
Their tyrannical world-rule is called Hiemarmene, universal Fate
… [This universal fate] aims at the enslavement of man.

As guardians of his sphere each
Archon bars the passage to the souls that seek to ascend after
death, in order to prevent their escape from the world and their
return to God."

The Gnostic Religion

Hans Jonas

So when we read a description of
Gnosticism such as that found in the classic text
The Gnostic Religion by Hans
Jonas, we must appreciate that the seeming cosmic dualism is
actually a dualism between the real and the unreal, between the
light of the higher worlds and forces which have been created
through ignorance.

They are like "monsters
from the Id", they seem real enough and since the
physical world is shaped and formed by our perceptions, they are for
all intents and purposes real.

The only way for us to escape
Hiemarmene (universal fate) is to realize that we have created
the prison bars ourselves.

"What a tragic world this is, he
reflected.

Those down here are prisoners, and
the ultimate tragedy is that they don't know it; they think they
are free because they never have been free, and do not
understand what it means. This is a prison, and few men have
guessed.

But I know, he said to himself.
Because that is why I am here. To burn the walls, to tear down
the metal gates, to break each chain.

Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox as he
treadeth out the corn, he thought, remembering the Torah."

The Divine Invasion

Phillip K. Dick

HarperCollins 1981

"For we contend not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of
this present darkness."

Ephesians 6:12.

While the Archons and the Demiurge are
creations of man's ignorance, they are used by the fallen spirits as
a source of power.

This is one of the major problems with
the Archons we create - they attract forms and spirits which are
themselves in ignorance and hence follow them.